GAZA CITY, Palestine

Despite the four-day humanitarian pause, the northern Gaza Strip has only three hospitals now operating, serving some 900,000 people there, and they are close to collapse, a top official warned on Sunday.

“The quantities of medical aid and fuel that arrived in the Gaza Strip, especially the northern areas of the strip, are very limited and insufficient, in light of the catastrophic health condition of the hospitals,” Munir Al-Bursh, director general of the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, told Anadolu.

"Medicines and medical supplies must be brought into Gaza in large quantities, in line with the catastrophic health situation in the strip,” he added.

He stressed "the need to strengthen the health system in Gaza and the northern regions and provide adequate health services."

“Only three hospitals are operating in the northern Gaza Strip, namely Al-Maamadani, Al-Awda, and Kamal Adwan,” Bursh said, warning of “their collapse.”

He described the health situation in Gaza in general as "extremely catastrophic and lacking the necessary health components."

Last Thursday the government media office in Gaza said that 26 hospitals and 55 health centers on the strip were out of service. Israeli forces also targeted 55 ambulances, while dozens of others are out of service due to fuel shortage.

A Qatari-mediated four-day humanitarian pause took effect Friday that temporarily halted Israeli attacks on Gaza, also meant to ease the delivery of more aid to the besieged enclave.

Though Israel had partially lifted its full blockade imposed soon after Oct. 7, it only let a trickle of badly needed aid in, a small portion of what was delivered prior to then.

Israel and Hamas swapped 41 Israelis and foreigners for 78 Palestinians from Israeli jails in two batches of a prisoners swap carried out in the first two days of a four-day humanitarian pause.

Israel launched a massive military campaign in the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.

It has since killed at least 14,854 Palestinians, including 6,150 children and over 4,000 women, according to health authorities in the enclave. The official Israeli death toll stands at 1,200.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi